It’s nearly here! Jaws of Extinction is right on the brink of entering Early Access.
Wednesday 22nd September 2021
At this time (just over three days hence) the game will become a fully fledged Early Access title and become available for everyone on the Steam Store.
Take a look at the timetable below to see what time the game unlocks in different countries.
Once you’ve scribbled the time and date in your calendar, come join us in our Discord channel (discord.gg/playjoegame). See you there!
Update 0.3.11 Released
0.3.11 has arrived! Introducing the new farming system - maintain lovingly grown plots of fruit and vegetables to sustain yourself. Once your plots are grown, they offer a bounty of food. However, starting from scratch isn’t always easy. You’ll need advanced materials, such as compost to grow with and glue to construct the frames. Additionally, this update aims at improving the experience for new players by guiding them to play in Driftwood mode first. All starting scenarios then unlock after playing through Sen’s quest. As usual, the update features quality of life improvements, bug fixes, and more.
Developer Comment: It would be advisable to start a fresh game as some mechanics, craftables and items may be bugged or not be available if using out of date game save files.
Farming
After constructing your base, it is time to start being self-sufficient and live off the land as nature intended. With two different sizes of farming plot and a basic composter, create fertiliser to use with your farming plots and grow fruit and vegetables to trade with or consume for your own survival.
Make compost with natural resources found around the world. All you need is some piles of leaves, wet mud (dirt) and poop! That's right, we now have a use for all those horse puckies generated from your faithful steed and any other horse tied up at your local safezone.
Planted crops usually take around 3 in-game days to fully grow with a healthy helping of compost and water. If your plot does run out of water don't worry too much, similarly to rain-collectors the plots will collect water when the heavens open up and provide a nice drink for your crops.
We have tried making all new interactable structures to be as easy and understandable as we can. Using the new wheel menu, add the resources to the station with a simple click of the button and the menu will show your levels. If the levels get too low, a pulsing icon will display above the station indicating something is wrong.
Remember to keep all your levels topped up and harvest crops for more seeds every now and then and you will soon be the next Leslie Tiller of Eden Nadir.
Start Scenario and Character Lock
When new players start the game, they will now be asked to begin the game in Driftwood mode playing as Amy. This is to ensure that any new players get to experience the game with some level of support.
All other starting scenarios and available characters will unlock after completing Sen’s starting quest for the first time.
Added
• Added stealth takedown camera. • Added small and large farming plots. • Added a large assortment of fruit/vegetable seeds and crop plants. Pick up crops and harvest them from your inventory for a chance of getting seeds and fruit and veg. • Added character lock until Sen’s Wreck quest has been completed at least once. • Added start-scenario lock until Sen’s Wreck quest has been completed at least once. • Seeds and crops/plants have been added to traders' trade data. • Seeds and crops/plants can be found in lockers and wooden crates around the world. • Ammo can now be recycled into brass, scrap metal and black powder.
Updated
• Dropped loose ammo now has a more visible mesh. • Shower now only undresses the character if they have soap to shower in the first place. • Updated various interactable objects to use improved radial menu interface. • Partial item balancing in loot, crafting and recycling. • Improved character's sleeping position and camera location when using a bed or sleeping bag.
Fixes
• Fixed shower causing issues for Sophia by setting the incorrect outfit. • Fixed bee nests not being harvistable. • Fixed Flashlight not working except on a saved game. • Fixed inventory filters by weight not disabling when scrapping. • Fixed not being able to craft a bucket. • Fixed small farming plot not returning the cooking pot • Fixed not being able to sleep at a craftable bed, due to cursor not displaying and no keyboard focus. • Fixed global settings for building items not working (e.g. raising buildings, removing plots, etc). • Fixed footsteps not working correctly in houses. • Fixed occasional issues causing character to disappear when sleeping in a bed.
Known issues & outstanding changes
• Game is missing left-handed support. • Swapping an item with a Jerry Can in the fuel slot on the quad causes the other item to be placed in the fuel slot. • When LED light runs out of battery, it unequips but does not re-enable belt chem-light. • NPCs can have ‘black beams’ coming out of their eyes when running the game using FXAA
End of 2021 Roadmap / Early Access FAQ
Hi everyone. The JoE team have just updated the roadmap to give an up-to-date summary of what you can expect over the next few months of development. Take a look at the image below to see what fancy new features you can expect to see moving forward into the future.
End of 2021 Roadmap
Click on the image above (stay on Steam) or here, to see an enlarged version of the roadmap on our official website http://playjoe.gg/roadmap/
Early Access FAQ
Secondly, we would like to take the opportunity to share our newly updated FAQs to help answer any questions you might have about the game's early access stage. Steam’s official Early Access FAQs have predefined questions, so this post will cover a few extra questions we think you might want to know. If there’s anything you are unsure of not covered by the FAQs, please feel free to drop us your questions in our Discord (https://discord.gg/playgoegame).
Why Early Access?
In May 2019, we temporarily launched an alpha prototype of the game on to Steam alongside our fundraising Kickstarter campaign. Following the fundraising period, we intentionally closed the store page because the game was not sufficiently developed for the majority of people to enjoy (this is why our storefront says May 2019). Now, three years later, Jaws of Extinction is ready to start it’s journey into Early Access. The game has developed massively during its time in Alpha, and we are now confident in sharing our progress with everybody. There is still much to do during Early Access, but the game is at a stage where we feel that the majority of people playing will have a fun and memorable experience.
What is included in Early Access and what to expect?
Early Access includes the basic version of the game and 4 player co-op, which will be only available in an experimental state to start with. Almost all of the core mechanics are available with some systems still being developed.
Some of the features already in the game are: base building, hunting, cooking, swimming, trading and traders, firearms and basic melee combat, hostile and friendly NPCs, quests, vehicles, crafting and harvesting.
How much of the world is available in Early Access?
The playable area currently consists of approximately a fifth of the map. Since Eden-Nadir is so large, this is actually a massive area already. The world will continue to grow over time as gameplay mechanics become more complete, meaning we can concentrate on filling out the remainder of the map.
Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?
We approximate that Early Access will be around 2 - 3 years from the launch of Multiplayer, as we are aware that JoE is a very ambitious game for such a very small team.
How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?
Early Access is about implementing the fundamental game mechanics and making the game stable and enjoyable to play. Once the game is ready to leave Early Access, we expect the gameplay mechanics to be well refined and the world to be complete.
Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?
Yes, we are selling JoE at a reduced price during Early Access because we don’t consider it fair to charge people the full price when they don’t get the full game yet. When the game is finished we will charge full price.
Will Downloadable Content be available, and what is to be expected?
DLC will be available at multiple points during development to help support the game and to give a little something back to the community helping us to grow the game. We only plan on aesthetic content and character outfits of which will NOT include any kind of pay-to-win aspects. DLC content such as world expansions will be considered after full release.
Will my game saves work across updates?
Your game saves will typically work following an update, although as gameplay features are updated, loaded games may cause those features to not work as expected in some cases.
How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?
We already have a flourishing community on Discord (https://discord.gg/playjoegame), Steam and our social media pages. We encourage our players to share and discuss their thoughts with us and a lot of the feedback we have received has been taken on board; some of it even shaping the game. We love hearing what everyone has to say and if it is constructive we will find a way to use it.
Is it possible to provide feedback and bug reports?
Feedback and comments are always most welcome. Please visit our Discord (https://discord.gg/playjoegame) to get in touch. Additionally, you can press [F1] in game to fill out a form to send us specific issues you have found.
Alpha Version 0.3.10a Update Released
0.3.10 has arrived! This latest update is a mix of fancy new additions and fixes. Stealth kills are back! Use stealth to sneak behind your enemies and take them out with deadly precision. Back at your base, be sure to try out the new buildable Tanning Rack. Producing leather can be hard work, so make use of your Tanning Rack to convert your hard-earned hide into good quality leather - ideal for crafting.
While hunting though, beware. New, foul, spore-infested nests have been sighted across Hanouten. The new nests have been designed to match into their environment. For example, you may now find a nest on the side of the road where fungal spores have overtaken the back of a van. Keep your eyes peeled!
Developer Comment: It would be advisable to start a fresh game as some mechanics, craftables and items may be bugged or not be available if using out of date game saves.
Player
• Sophia Riggs is now available to Backers who have Early Access to the third protagonist. • Stealth kill takedowns can now be performed if you get close enough behind an bipedal enemy and press F. • The earpiece slot has now been replaced with a knife as the earpiece did not do anything. Knives will need to be recovered from the player's belongings if the character dies. • Facemasks and flashlights now auto equip. • Exclusive NEW outfit and skin DLC “Creator Pack” has been added. Initially it will be available to participating content creators, who will each have a limited number of keys to distribute to their fans. If you have a favourite content creator that you would like to see involved, let us know, and we will reach out to them. UI • Updated main menu with new banners.
Quests
• Improved access to the handgun in Sen's vehicle. • Doubled the size of Sen's keys to improve visibility.
Items & Crafting
• Added burnt fish item. Fish no longer disappear when burned on a campfire/stove. • Added craftable leather tanning rack to convert animal pelts to leather for crafting. • Improvised backpack now only requires cloth, sticks and twine to craft. • Leather backpack now requires 5 leather instead of 10 animal pelts. • Baseball bats now require leather instead of animal pelts. • Chemistry bench now requires a scaffolding kit, can of lubricant, blow torch and 150 mechanical parts. • Engineering bench now requires a scaffolding kit, empty propane bottle, hairdryer and 100 mechanical parts. • Large water collectors now collect water faster than its predecessors. • Water butts can now be placed down and collect rain water on their own, with a lower capacity and longer fill time than water collectors • A directional arrow has been added to placables where it is difficult to determine the front of the item, like chests, beds, hobo stove and so on. NPCs • Horde now resets on player death. Environment • Added vehicle blockade to the road out of Hanouten. • Added a new style of infected nest, infected will emerge from the back of a truck styled like a nest. • Improved holes in the landscape that may have caused the player to get stuck. • Improved visuals of Hanouten basketball court.
Fixes
• Fixed equipped flashlight clipping with camera while aiming in first person. • Fixed respawning after being underwater causing character to respawn losing oxygen while on land. • Fixed O2 meter staying on screen after drowning. • Fixed not being able to fill cooking pots or buckets from water collectors. • Fixed campfire attachments reappearing on campfire after saving and loading when an attachment was removed before saving. • Fixed cooking meat and fish on the grill at the same time allowing more than 4 items on the grill, producing endless cooked meat. • Fixed loot containers not respawning after 3 days. • Fixed picking up more items that you already have a stack of, causing the notification to report only getting 1 item instead of the correct value. • Fixed location where players could get stuck on the beach near Nomad start. • Fixed being able to spam [F] to interact with rubbish bins which would make the sound loop. • Fixed issue with outfit mods duplicating when changing from underwear to an outfit with mods.
Known issues & outstanding changes
• Game is missing left-handed support. • Swapping an item with a Jerry Can in the fuel slot on the quad causes the other item to be placed in the fuel slot. • When LED light runs out of battery, it unequips but does not re-enable belt chem-light. • NPCs can have ‘black beams’ coming out of their eyes when running the game using FXAA.
Alpha Version 0.3.9a Update Released
0.3.9 has arrived! Grab your construction helmet - because you’re going to need it. This update features the introduction of a new player building system. Plan out your new home with frames, then build the structure up with resources from around the world.
Trystan has arrived on Eden-Nadir! Everyone will now have access to the latest protagonist available to them now. Trystan is a boxer, so while Amy may have a slight speed advantage, Tystan makes up for it with sustained stamina.
This update comes packed with additional fixes and improvements. Notably, the patch will make a significant improvement to CPU related performance, which was a difficult performance bottleneck for many.
Developer Comment: It would be advisable to start a fresh game as some mechanics may be bugged if using out of date game saves.
Player
• Added "NutCracker" outfit skin to the outfit system. • Player character outfits are now DLC ready allowing for skins and outfits to be unlocked via Steam keys. • Trystan protagonist now available to everyone (selecting Trystan will only allow Nomad starting location). • Player building system version 2.0 is now available, craft and equip a Crafting Mallet to enable. • Updated Trystan and Amy arms when using melee weapons in first person. • Added spore sickness system, requires nest harvested biomass to cure at the moment. • New quiver and arrow mesh on the back of the character. • Wet footstep sound effects are back. When it rains footsteps can cause splashing sounds.
UI
• Loot interaction icons improved. The icon will appear differently when a container has been looted, or if it is empty. For items, the icon will show if you will receive an integrity penalty when picking the item up.
Quests
• Made various quality of life improvements to the broken pipe in Sen's flooded basement. • New Driftwood quest added when spawning in the medical centre. • Soap now only spawns at wash stations in Driftwood mode.
Items & Crafting
• Collectable empty oil drum (barrel) • Craftable Hobo Stove now available • Sleeping Bags can be used with Burning Oil Barrels, safe camp campfires and crafted campfires. • Sleeping Bags no longer despawn after use. • Improved placement of items, such as sleeping bags and workbenches. • Made new craftable and placeable defences such as spikes. • Enabled craftable beds which can be slept at. • Respirator boxes now require security cards. • Balanced item recycling weights and quantities. • Scaffolding kits have been reduced to 100kg and now scraps to pipes and planks. • Facemasks, body armor and flashlights no longer reduce in condition from general movement. Condition is only affected by damage or when used. • Crafting level is now more visible in the crafting display panel. • Facemasks can now be repaired with new filter items. • Mechanical Parts now require 100 x Electronics instead of 1 x Spark Plug to craft. When crafting, it produces a quantity of 50 Mechanical Parts. • Both Smithy and Chem Bench are available to craft. They still do not have all the crafting recipes available but you can make ammo with them. • Crafting cloth time reduced from 15 seconds to 5 seconds • Arrows can now be picked up via the vicinity feature • Improved being able to pick up arrows • Fish and Crabbing Nets can now be crafted in the workbench and placed in shallow water to harvest fish and crabs. • Improved Campfire / Fire Pit menu visuals and ease of use. • Campfires can now cook fish and can empty and fill dirty and clean water. • Empty water bottles can now be filled with dirty water from a water source like a lake or the ocean. • Horse Manure no longer causes negative integrity when picked up. • Showers now automatically change the character into their underwear • Updated dirty water bottle mesh and inventory icon. • Doubled the size of bars of soap, so they are easier to see.
Looting & Harvesting
• Small military crates have been balanced to only give ammo. • Scrap plastic has been added to more loot containers, so they now have a higher chance of spawning. • Amount of logs given by trees has been increased • Saplings, bushes and plants can now be harvested with an axe giving an increased amount of resources compared to harvesting by hand. • Machete harvesting amounts increased. • Fish traps in water can yield small edible fish and natural twine
NPCs
• Traders will now only sell tiered weapons to players with good integrity ratings. • Trader weapon prices updated. • Trader NPCs now have idle facial animations (when not interacting with player) • Traders will now only trade high tier weapons if the character matches or exceeds the required reputation of the trader or safe-zone. • Trader items will display the reputation required to purchase. • Hazmat enemies are now faster to detect the player and are faster in combat • Improved line of sight trace responsible for showing and hiding overhead NPC alert widgets • Crocodile land-attack bites now do 60-70 damage.
Environment
• Additional work done to North Cross Bridges and safe zone. • Road bend on the way into Cross Bridges from Hanouten has had a slight face lift ready for Cross Bridges final sweep. • New radio tower and tunnel added between Hanouten and Crossbridges • Road textures updated • Added a new POI to the beach "LifeGuard Hut". • Updated the Dry Dock with additional fences. • Improved weather rain particles to look more present in the scene
Performance
• Updates to mesh LODs and draw distances. • Huge CPU overheads have been eliminated and has increased overall performance. • Optimised render distances for items by setting items on the ground floor to have a higher render distance than items on the upper floor. • Increased the Texture Streaming Pool from 4Gb to 6Gb to see if this decreases load on GPUs.
Fixes
• Fixed being able to loot through walls and improved protection against other related exploits • Fixed not being able to pick up spike traps. • Fixed issue preventing character from mounting/dismounting vehicles correctly when on top of a player built structure • Fixed not being able to steer a vehicle when parts are damaged or out of fuel. • Fixed buildable interior walls not having collision • Fixed issues where nest spawned NPCs would never despawn correctly • Fixed ladder animation not playing when climbing ladders. • Fixed not being able to fill bottles, buckets and pots with water from a water source. • Fixed empty water bottles not saying Fill. • Fixed being able to skip timer on filling bottles, buckets and pots by right clicking on the item. • Fixed bird nests only providing a very small amount of feathers. Now yields between 5 and 20 feathers. • Fixed missing icons from cooking grill. • Fixed Sen’s quest not activating on the east side in Survivor mode. • Fixed issue preventing multiple player built structures. • Fixed Runner telling people to talk to Kenneth when you start on "Survivor" difficulty. • Fixed Weapons casting shadows on flashlight. • Fixed stack of empty icons appearing constantly on screen. • Fixed exploit on theft from containers in safe-zones by holding [F] to take all items. • Fixed gamestart screen needing a cursor to be active. Hitting [Escape] to gain focus would cause the game to hang. • Fixed walls showing interior wall mesh when removed and re added. • Fixed sleeping bags not persisting after sleeping. • Fixed NVGs bugging out the head in first person. • Fixed removal of NVGs not re-enabling the flashlight. • Fixed some nests not burning out. • Fixed Baseball Bats and Pickaxe having the axe icon on weapon HUD. • Tentative fix to prevent situations where characters who have been set on fire from NPCs may immediately die when in range of another heat source. • Fixed first person view Amy still using her old arms, with the long fingernails. • Fixed weapons casting shadows with a torch. • Fixed getting XP for looting own death bag. • Fixed losing integrity when looting your own death bag in safe zones. • Fixed flashlight being usable after death. • Fixed interior walls disappearing and empty exterior walls reappearing on saving/loading. • Fixed jerry cans bought from traders not working to siphon fuel. • Fixed items not removing resources when being repaired. • Fixed issue where Trystan's wetsuit outfit was broken. • Fixed nests not activating particle systems correctly. • Fixed some foliage opening up the inventory when harvesting. • Fixed incorrect icons showing above harvestable vehicles. • Fixed not being able to climb out of water onto a ledge such as around boat houses, jetties and boat docks. • Fixed floating tents in the Nomad safe camp. • Fixed draw distance culling on a number of meshes that had no draw distance values. • Fixed losing integrity when using vendor machines to buy coffee. • Fixed hotbar contents not persisting on save/load. • Fixed outfits sometimes not being wearable. • Fixed loading a savegame causing the game to load as a different character.
Known issues & outstanding changes
• Game is missing left-handed support. • Swapping an item with a Jerry Can in the fuel slot on the quad causes the other item to be placed in the fuel slot. • When LED light runs out of battery, it unequips but does not re-enable belt chem-light. • NPCs can have ‘black beams’ coming out of their eyes when running the game using FXAA.
Steam Play Test Final Phase - Is Now Live
We would like to thank everyone that has actively been involved in phase I and II of the Steam play test and helped in the development and testing of the latest update 0.3.9a.
In the final week before we open the Steam Store for Early Access we have sent out our final batch of invites to Phase III of the Playtest. Trystan is now available and we have the first pass of our new building system.
This week will also be the last chance to complete our user feedback survey to unlock the exclusive Outfit Skin. So far the feedback has been incredibly helpful, and we’d like to thank you all for participating. The survey will be available until the end of the playtest, and keys will be sent out once it is finalised.
PLAY TEST ENDS
MONDAY 6TH SEPTEMBER
Steam Play Test Phase 2 - Is Now Live
We would like to thank everyone that has actively been involved in the first phase of the Steam play test and helped in the development and testing of the latest update 0.3.8a.
In the light of the new update, we are now opening the doors for more testers who have been waiting in the background. Phase 2 will help us develop and test 0.3.9a where we will see the return of the building system, the release of our second protagonist Trystan and more leading up to our third and final stage of play testing.
We have put together a unique Outfit Skin as a thank you to the people who have been helping us test and report bugs in our Discord, Steam forums and the built-in bug reporter in the Jaws of Extinction application.
The Free Skin is exclusive to testers / owners that are actively testing our game, and can be earned by providing additional feedback via the survey link on the main menu.
Alpha Version 0.3.8a Update Released
0.3.8 has arrived! This monster update tackles a load of quality of life and bug fixes in addition to a bunch of system upgrades which improve gameplay and performance.
Beware of the Bayou! Prehistoric predators lurk amongst the thicket. One mis-step and you could be on the receiving end of a lethal strike from a hunting crocodile. Running away into the water is not much safer. Crocodiles are excellent swimmers and will drag you under the surface with ease. You have been warned.
In addition to new wildlife AI, the ever threatening Infected have received a healthy update to their combat behaviour. Infected and now faster and smarter. You have been warned… again.
Take a look at the updated HUD. Icons have been rearranged for usability and comfort. Elements of the inventory have received an update too to make your inventory management as smooth as possible.
Amy has something to say! New facial animations for the game’s current protagonist along Sen’s questline are in with new voice recordings.
Developer Comment: It would be advisable to start a fresh game as some mechanics may be bugged if using out of date game saves.
New Power & UV System
Added a new power system. Some locations that can be used as a player base have a power system that can be powered by a 12v vehicle battery.
Car Battery Chargers now operate like placeable workstations. Place the charger on the ground and press [F] to add a battery. Holding [F] allows you to pick the charger up. A green light will show when the battery is fully charged.
Added UV lamps to some locations that can be claimed by players. When powered, these will apply 10% damage every second to an Infected caught in the rays.
Added UV lights around safe camps.
Player
Low Morale no longer stops the character from running. Morale now reduces Stamina regeneration and increases Stamina and Energy drain by up to a maximum of 8x.
When dying in either the Survivor or Nomad scenarios, the player will now spawn at the relevant starting camp unless a respawn point has been placed (e.g. a tent or sleeping bag).
Added prologue catch-up story text to the Driftwood start scenario which explains how the protagonist arrived on the island.
Looting containers in safe-zones will now display an icon to show that taking the items will be stealing and will reduce integrity if taken.
Added functionality to allow items to be picked up in safe-zones if the player has permission to take them. This includes items such as outfits, soap, the machete at survivor camp etc.
Added vehicle repair to the action wheel. Consume a small vehicle repair kit, 50% of a medium kit or 25% of a large kit to fully repair the vehicle. This does not repair vehicle parts, rather the vehicle itself.
New Skill System rework. Includes new pop-up UI visuals as the player levels up. Includes improved methods of calculating XP. New inventory UI tab to show progression coming soon.
Implemented improved bug reporting system. Uses Trello to store data which gives the player more features to report bugs (big thank you to Immortal Hand Studio for this).
New shortcut system to replace ‘5 and 6’ hotkeys that used to consume bandages and health kits.
- Assign items to hotkey slots in the inventory.
- Drag and drop items to create shortcuts
-Right click to clear the shortcut.
Dying will now penalize the player by spawning them with half hunger, hydration and energy.
Disabled movement camera shake completely due to shaky camera issues.
Added a vignette to the player camera when stamina is low.
Heavy breathing sounds will now not start until below 50% stamina.
Updated stamina VFX, the effect will start at 20% stamina and will get more intense the lower the stamina gets.
Amy now has voice over (by Nicole Templeton) and facial animations. Applies to Sen's quests at the moment.
UI
Weapon HUD now shows current weapon damage by shading the damage percentage in red.
Updated player HUD: moved status icons under the player vitals and added player light source icon.
When hovering over melee weapons in the inventory, statistics about the weapon are shown and can be compared to the currently equipped melee weapon.
Updated horse HUD.
Updated vehicle HUD.
Added option to close campfire radial menus.
Weapons
Increased range of improvised weapons.
Re-scaled improvised weapons to a more reasonable size and adjusted their melee ranges accordingly.
Players can now harvest with a machete. Bladed weapons will harvest items like nettles, berry bushes, bushes and saplings while increasing the amount harvested dependent on the weapon.
Improved detection issues when harvesting foliage, particularly thinner trees.
Player Lights & Nightvision
Added a new light source icon that displays the type of light and its condition to the HUD.
Increased the distance the flashlight will illuminate as well as doubled the brightness.
Improved the overall flashlight and NVG functionality.
Reduced brightness of chemlight.
Updated NVG visuals to be more effective at night and in low light conditions.
NVGs will no longer lose condition when not enabled.
Quests
Rifle will no longer spawn in Sen’s safe, added extra pistol ammo and other bits.
Items & Crafting
Sleeping bags and Tactical Tents now have a placement and spawn cool down timer of 5 minutes. Upon placing or spawning at a sleeping bag or tent you will have to wait 5 minutes before spawn at this location.
Crafting soap will now give you five bars per craft instead of one.
Added a Shredder Recycle Machine a.k.a "Xhredder". Place items in the inventory and turn it on from the wheel menu.
Scaffolding kits are now droppable and will not be destroyed.
Lockpick kits now only require scrap metal, but now also need a Metal File tool as a requirement to craft.
New Improvised Backpack added. Not as good as the Crafted Leather Backpack, but requires less resources.
Player made Horse Trough and Hitch are now a single system. Craft a Hitch and Feed from a workbench and place to hitch a horse and add food to the trough.
Items in traders stock list will now display the quality type on the icon.
Replaced loot item sparkles with proximity icons.
Balanced spawn rate for all consumables. Fruit, vegetables and tinned foods increase vitals a lot less. Cooked items typically provide much higher replenishment.
Increased the chance of getting pipes from scrap piles and lootable machines.
High tier outfits have been added to locked military loot crates.
New Items:
New craftable recipe: Natural Glue.
New craftable recipe: Duct Tape.
Rebalanced Items:
Medium Med Kits - 100 Health, 100 Wellness, no effect to hunger and hydration over 60 seconds and stops bleeding.
Improvised Med Kits - 100 Health, 100 Wellness, - 25% hunger and hydration over 120 seconds and does not stop bleeding.
Healing Herbs - 10% Health, 5% hunger and hydration, 37kj energy over 60 seconds.
Nettles - 1% hunger and hydration, 37kj energy over 120 seconds.
Crafting cost for "Improvised Med Kits" now costs 1x alcohol, 1x gauze pack, 1x blood bag, 1x sewing kit .
Beeswax and honeycomb slightly reduced hunger and wellness replenishment.
Looting & Harvesting
Added bee hives. Will produce honey and wax daily at 4x the rate of a wild nests. Bees are also friendly and will not attack the player.
Birds' nests now provide between 3 - 12 feathers, 2 - 6 sticks and 1 - 3 eggs.
Campfire now provides both ash and charcoal.
Pine trees can now be harvested.
Trees and plants have a chance of giving Sap when harvesting them.
Items received from looting containers and from loot spawners have been rebalanced.
Reduced quality of harvestable resources from trees i.e.logs.
NPCs
Aggressive Crocodiles added to the Bayou.
Improved navigation for wandering NPCs in Backwater Beacon
Updated appearance of two old men and children.
Animals can no longer sometimes be killed in one shot.
Added facial animations for Sheriff Sen.
Added additional character to Nomad Camp who will provide quests and rewards from the nearby noticeboard.
Added new black smith trader in Backwater Beacon stables.
Updated Brendan, Jess and Leilani's models.
Improved Infected melee and movement during combat.
Minimum infected height slightly increased.
Added new Stage 1 Infected. They will spot you faster but can be safely headshot without the risk of exploding spores.
Improved infected feet clipping into the ground.
Increased infected footstep volume.
New hazmat enemies will defend the updated airfield.
Safe-zones & Camps
Nomad camp now has a job board.
Major safe-zones (e.g. Backwater Beacon) now auto-holster weapons on entry.
Vehicles
Added vehicle damage when colliding with objects at speed.
Ground rocks and branches no longer collide with vehicles making it easier to get around off road.
Driveable vehicle spawns reduced.
Environment
All pickable locked doors above stores and attics are now lvl 0 locks.
All garden sheds now have lootable chests and items.
Added building above Hanouten 711.
Updated sand/beach and dirt textures.
Updated visuals at the boathouse near the Nomad camp.
Added new location Tammerlane & Daughter Gas Station between supermarket and Orlings & Son.
Hanouten Lighthouse is now open with its basic interior complete
House interiors are now a lot darker and create more of an atmosphere.
Sen's vehicle has been overhauled with updated textures. This is the start of a vehicle texture overhaul across the game.
Added trash scattered on streets.
Improved static vehicle shaders.
Adjusted collision on rocks scattered along shorelines.
Ground mist added to Bayou surroundings.
Added audible radios. In the future, they will play Blackout FM radio.
Updated Nomad Camp surroundings with additional fencing and beach updates with pathing.
Updated boathouse on Garnet Lake just behind Backwater Beacon.
Added sound effects to the water's edge of oceans and lakes.
Updated materials on building walls and basements.
Added shutters to small houses in Hanouten.
Performance
Optimised tree materials being very expensive.
Optimised buildings above stores and boat houses.
Reduced foliage density in fields with tall grass.
Improved performance on static lanterns around the world.
Updated flying birds that stay in the sky to address the cost of AI controlled bird performance.
Performance improvements made to the character to reduce the amount of data being processed every frame by the CPU.
Improved performance of the weather system which runs every frame.
Fixes
Fixed Player being able to climb over horse trade doors and climb up water containers behind Brenden.
Fixed Infected Nests. Nest spawners will now produce infected continuously until burned.
Fixed loot spawner at Liam’s Garage regenerating loot as you leave the area and come back.
Fixed vehicles getting spawned on top of each other when loading a saved game.
Fixed stealing being applied to player owned containers like the vehicle and tent inventories.
Fixed stealing check being bypassed by using Take All or right-click on items.
Fixed character wielding weapons after eating, drinking, picking up and dismounting a vehicle in the safezone.
Fixed Fatal Error caused by NVGs.
Fixed NPCs sometimes not attacking crouched players.
Fixed issue with items being dropped in safezone giving negative integrity when picked back up.
Fixed notice boards locking the game’s controls after loading a save game.
Fixed movement camera shake getting stuck after death.
Fixed ‘sticky’ [F] key issue.
Fixed not sprinting when holding shift before moving.
Fixed being able to lockpick containers that have been unlocked after loading a save.
Fixed losing too much integrity when looting containers by clicking take all.
Fixed shortcut bar displaying on screen on player death.
Fixed horse energy being stuck on screen when first loading the game.
Fixed notification of ‘None’ being too heavy when adding items from containers to the player inventory.
Fixed pressing [ESC] key while in bug reporter losing mouse camera function and WASD unless character suicides or uses the admin menu to get movement back.
Fixed NPCs abnormally looking at the character.
Fixed instances of deer with only one HP causing them to die instantly when damaged.
Fixed animation issues when harvesting rocks and trees.
Fixed stamina VFX sometimes not displaying.
Fixed the floating information boxes for items rendering partially out of screen when hovering over equipment in the character screen.
Fixed the floating tip boxes flickering on the top corner of the screen when hovering over vital stats in the player inventory on the character screen.
Fixed issue with locked chests being unlocked only to have nothing inside.
Fixed issue with animals being harvested and not giving a sufficient amount of resources. This will be changed again soon when different size pelts are introduced.
Fixed geometry of beams in the lighthouse blocking players inside.
Fixed issues with blurry ST-RV and weapons.
Fixed children leaning on fences.
Fixed disappearing fences near the covered bridge.
Fixed Infected Nests spawning when loading a save game before the game has fully loaded, causing issues.
Fixed campfires not returning player to first-person if entering rest position in first person.
Fixed an issue where the character would lean backwards after vaulting after using a campfire rest location in first person.
Fixed not being able to climb on the cobblestone walls around Hanouten.
Fixed traders eye materials not being rendered correctly.
Fixed dying or loading on Nomad preventing the player from being able to talk to Ken to hand in quests.
Fixed rock in the middle of the road near a construction yard.
Fixed cliffs with dark colouration.
Fixed issue with not being able to consume or use items while a weapon was equipped.
Fixed not being able to access the wheel menu on tents.
Fixed issue causing dropped items to disappear when loading a saved game.
Fixed iron sights on weapons sometimes not showing after switching weapons if the weapon already had an attachment on it.
Fixed weapon position being wrong while aiming in first person if the original weapon had a sight and new weapon does not.
Fixed items giving XP when moving them from one slot to another in the inventory.
Fixed NVGs being visible / clipping with the player camera when in first person mode.
Fixed Morale display on the sleeping UI displaying incorrect data if morale went over 100%.
Fixed spawning after dying getting stuck in an infinite loop.
Fixed hacksaw going missing when auto-managing the player inventory.
Fixed horde warning getting stuck on screen at game load.
Fixed Battery Charger not saving.
Fixed missing swim volume on pond near lighthouse.
Fixed integrity not saving.
Fixed kill stats not saving from session to session.
Fix where interacting with a flaming NPC will cause the player to catch fire and die when later moving into the range another heat sources.
Fixed bleeding to death in a vehicle not allowing a player to respawn.
Fixed notifications not displaying all items added / picked up.
Fixed Jess’ materials not being rendered correctly.
Arrows shot by the player no longer give a reputation penalty when picking them back up in safe zones.
Raised sleeper NPCs in the ground on a wooden bridge near the basketball court in Hanouten.
Fixed horse statistics blocking inventory slots in the players inventory.
Fixed gaining additional integrity and XP from completed quests on loading a save game.
Known issues & outstanding changes
Torch doesn’t illuminate directly towards the center of the screen making it difficult to examine objects in close spaces.
Game is missing left-handed support.
Swapping an item with a Jerry Can in the fuel slot on the quad causes the other item to be placed in the fuel slot.
When LED light runs out of battery, it unequips but does not re-enable belt chem-light.
NPCs can have ‘black beams’ coming out of their eyes when running the game using FXAA.
Sleeping bags placed on foundations or flat ground can sometimes be placed at an unusual angle.
Number of Bandages and Medkits appears incorrectly on the HUD after loading a savegame.
Disturbance Meter appears incorrectly on the HUD after loading a savegame.
Alpha Version 0.3.7.0a Update Released
Update 0.3.7.0 has arrived! New starting scenarios allow you to get straight into the action by starting the game in different places. Get started by crafting the new improvised axe and pickaxe. Then store your new items in the improvised leather backpack. Take a look at the fancy new visuals for several NPCs!
This update has a lot of fixes thanks to the continual support of our Steam testing community. The fixes are varied, but many of them aim to address issues surrounding saving/loading issues, progression and NPCs.
Additionally, several new techniques aimed at improving performance have been implemented as part of the ongoing work into gameplay optimisation.
Developer Comment: Due to some of the game's default keybindings being remapped, it would be advisable to remove your original keybindings before launching the game (version 0.3.5.0a) if you have played before. This can be found in appdata/local/joegame_a/saved/savegames. Delete the file named “DefaultJOEPlayer_KeyBindings.sav”. This file will then be regenerated upon launching the game.
New Game Start Scenarios
New game scenario selection menu on new games. Choose from Driftwood, Survivor and Nomad (these are NOT difficulty modes, just starting scenarios)
Driftwood Follow the story from the start, meet Sheriff Sen and Kenneth Hughes with a couple of small tasks to complete in order to leave the safety of Backwater Beacon. Recommended for players wanting to start the story from the very beginning.
Survivor Start down on the beach with a stranger known as James Bell, a jolly man that can assist you in your survival as well as trade with you from his eclectic collection of items. But be aware he has a steep markup. Make your own way in the world, while still being able to attempt Sen’s Wreck Quest and visit the Backwater Beacon Safe Zone at any time.
Nomad You are your own completely from the get go. Spawn in the nomad camp with access to sleeping provisions and a warm campfire only. Safe-camp tents cannot be used as save points or storage - you will need to make your own. You will not have access to the Sen’s Wreck quest, but will temporarily have access to Backwater Beacon and noticeboard quests while the three scenarios are fleshed out.
Player
Fixed melee weapons disappearing after showering.
Fixed upper-body disappearing if showering with a melee weapon in-hand while in first person and after having swung the weapon prior.
Fixed circumstances causing the character’s body to appear without arms after showering.
Fixed losing ammunition loaded into weapons on death. Ammo is returned to the inventory and can be scavenged from body bags.
Fixed MK18 weapons having iron sights installed while using a scope/sight.
Fixed removal of a scope attachment causing the weapon to appear partially missing while aiming in first person.
Fixed using number inputs to enter safe code numbers simultaneously cycling weapons and using health items.
Fixed issue when exiting an NPC trade menu in first person causing the character to appear headless on the next trade interaction.
Campfire
Fixed character getting stuck at an odd angle after sitting at a campfire.
Fixed being able to give crouch inputs while sitting at a campfire.
Improved heat source falloff curve which was causing the player to overheat too quickly. Applies to campfires, burning barrels, etc.
Fixed issue when adding too much meat to campfires causing it to continually add meat to the fire.
Fixed spit attachment requiring zero sticks to manufacture.
Reduced scrap cost of spit and grill.
Grill no longer requires a workbench to craft.
Fixed campfire rest locations allowing characters to fall through the ground.
Fixed campfire continually applying heat modifier to the player when extinguished, no matter how far character is from the campfire.
Quests
Fixed supply run quests allowing the player to collect additional supplies causing the quest to incorrectly progress.
Fixed noticeboard not refreshing at 7am.
Items & Crafting
Fixed old unusable item 'Water Flask' being sold at traders.
Fixed crafting benches only crafting one item at a time, even when set to craft 'Max'.
Reduced weight of Extreme Survival Backpacks from 15KG to 2KG.
Removed invalid chrome weapon variants from the trader.
Added additional lootable crates around the map.
Added an improvised pickaxe to the inventory crafting list.
Added an improvised axe to the inventory crafting list.
Added a basic leather backpack to the inventory crafting list.
NPCs
All traders now use the cinematic camera system when interacting with them.
Fixed Liam’s truck hitbox always blocking collisions in the safe zone even when it is not there.
Fixed NPCs turning their head to look at Amy like something out of The Exorcist.
Updated Sheriff Sen’s model.
Updated Kenneth Hughes model.
New trader "James Bell" was added to the new safe camp.
Fixed corpses from nest spawns not despawning after leaving the area.
Fixed horde spawned NPC corpses not despawning.
Fixed traders not updating their wallets at midnight.
Fixed nest spawns spawning infected whether active or not.
Environment
Fixed double-toilet mesh issue in house near breakfast cafe.
Fixed road barricades missing their textures.
Fixed various walls in the Hanouten Safe-zone medical centre allowing the player to get stuck inside them.
Fixed not being able to shoot through shop/store windows.
Updated garage door models. These will be intractable at a later date.
Vehicles now spawn in driveways and garages again.
Fixed bushes turning into tree stumps when harvested.
Fixed positioning of interaction UI on Kenneth Hughes basement door .
Fixed invisible collision around basement exits.
Fixed backwards collision on stairs on the starboard side of the drydock ship with a new platform and ladder.
Fixed caravan door showing incorrect door mesh and being open by default.
Fixed gaps between embankment and landscape near the dry dock.
Added a new dock shed on the east shore near the Hanouten lighthouse.
Introduced additional basic workbenches around the map.
Fixed items getting lost when stored in a vehicle and reloading a saved game.
Fixed inventory not generating the correct number of rows in loaded games.
Weapon fire mode now saves.
UI
Improved order of items in the crafting menu.
Various spelling error corrections.
Fixed health showing incorrect value on the ST-RV and inventory UI.
Performance
Fixed crash while in inventory.
Various error fixes potentially contributing to CPU performance.
Implemented new instanced meshes throughout the environment to improve performance (ongoing process).
Updated all traders to use non-AI based mechanics similar to Sen and Kenneth. This reduces the need for AI pathing and other costly calculations.
Known issues & outstanding changes
Torch doesn’t illuminate directly towards the center of the screen making it difficult to examine objects in close spaces.
Game is missing left-handed support.
Swapping an item with a Jerry Can in the fuel slot on the quad causes the other item to be placed in the fuel slot.
When LED light runs out of battery, it unequips but does not re-enable belt chem-light.
NPCs can have ‘black beams’ coming out of their eyes when running the game using FXAA.
Sleeping bags placed on foundations or flat ground can sometimes be placed at an unusual angle.
Number of Bandages and Medkits appears incorrectly on the HUD after loading a savegame.
Disturbance Meter appears incorrectly on the HUD after loading a savegame.
Alpha Version 0.3.7.1a
• Fixed issue with crafting from the inventory not taking any resources. • Fixed issue with vehicles spawning on top of other vehicles on a loaded save game. • Fixed issue with items placed in a vehicles inventory getting overwritten on loaded save games. • Fixed cooking pots and buckets of dirty water, clean water or animal fat scraping to 250 empty cooking pots. • Fixed not being able to fill cooking pots or buckets with dirty water in the ocean or lakes (Rivers do not currently fill pots) • Fixed not being able to hand in quests to Kenneth Hughes on Survivor / Nomad starting scenarios (Will not work with earlier save games) • Added the ability to wash with soap in the ocean and lakes, stand in the water and use the consume item function from the inventory. Each bar of soap will give you 12% but will only wash you until you are at 70%.
